You are the CEO of Bonner, a U.S.-based farm equipment corporation. Bonner recen

Question

You are the CEO of Bonner, a U.S.-based farm equipment corporation. Bonner recently announced the release of an innovative new tractor with technology based on a patented invention developed by Bonner's engineers. Bonner's vice president, who is aware of the upcoming product offering, bought 100,000 shares of Bonner stock prior to the announcement. You found out about the vice president's stock purchase on the day of the announcement.

One week after the announcement, Bonner received a letter from a German farm equipment corporation, accusing Bonner of patent infringement based on the new tractor's technology.

Bonner's board of directors asked you to assess the vice president's liability for the stock purchase and the company's options for resolving the German corporation's patent infringement claim.

Write a paper of 700- to 1,050-words in which you address the following:

Assessment

Explain why Bonner is the owner of the invention

Discuss the intellectual property rights owned by Bonner in the invention

Assess the liability of Bonner's vice president for purchasing the corporation's stock prior to the announcement of the new tractor.

Assess whether Bonner has any legal or ethical duties to disclose the stock purchase, and if so, to whom?

Solution

Compare the resolution of the patent dispute in a U.S. court with the resolution of the dispute using the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) dispute resolution program. Search the internet to review WIPO's dispute resolution program. (Information about WIPO's dispute resolution program may be located on their website by searching the Internet for WIPO).

Suggest a method of dispute resolution (e.g., arbitration, mediation, litigation, WIPO dispute resolution), why that method would be desirable for resolving the dispute, and how and where the dispute resolution should be held (United States, foreign country, online, etc.).

Prevention

Discuss risk management procedures Bonner can adopt to avoid or reduce situations like these from happening in the future.

Explanation / Answer

Bonner is definitely the owner of this is specific invention as it is clearly mentioned in the above statement that company released of an innovative protractor based on a 'patented invention' by the companies engineers. As the invention is already patented it is clear that Bonner is owner of the specific invention.

According to the federal law the company is protected from intellectual property rights which directly protects the company from any kind of infringement by other corporations as well as usage of the specific patent Technologies by any other organisation.

Bonner can be held liable for insider trading. As the vice president had already bought 10000 stocks of an upcoming product which is not produced by the company or released by the company in the market, it is a direct example of insider trading. Which is illegal in this specific type of case as the material information is still non-public.

Bonner definitely has ethical and illegal fiduciary duties to disclose the stock purchase to the board of directors and has a legal ethical duty of disclosing all the information to the public as well.

For mitigating the specific company can implement a monthly training program for the employees for reduction of any kind of future insider trading. Implementation of compliance officers in the organisation would also be a positive approach for reinforcing the insider trading policy of the organisation and implementation of a strong code of conduct.

Implementation of a strong code of conduct as well as code of ethics would also be appropriate in this is handling situation to improve the availability of opportunity for the organisation to make a better quality standards in operation and service location towards the employees.

P.S.- please number the questions in upcoming posts as it makes it easier to point out the answer accordingly.

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